Once again, it's almost impossible to classify Capon's writing. Part parable, sermon, and coffee-chat, this book tackles the concept of grace with a perspective I've never quite considered. No one can write like Capon, and I'm tempted to just list a bunch of quotes. With his signature dry wit, Capon angered and annoyed me with his description of grace, and then casually pulled the rug out from under me, showing me how performance-oriented I still am. Added bonus: this is the best defense against antinomianism I've encountered - not because of the theological arguments (that was there) but because Capon's imagery and storytelling convey his points so much more organically. Capon uncannily anticipates and answers my logical pushbacks just before I've quite articulated them myself.

And because I can't resist:
"The church, by and large, has a poor record of encouraging freedom. She has spent so much time inculcating in us the fear of making mistakes that she has made us like ill-taught piano students: we play our songs, but we never really hear them because our main concern is not to make music but to avoid some flub that will get us in the dutch... [we] live, not in fear of mistakes, but in the knowledge that no mistake can hold a candle to the love that draws us home. ...Grace - the imperative to hear the music, not just listen for errors - makes all infirmities occasions for glory."

"Now then. Ask yourself a question. Do you seriously think that, in their joy at having been admitted with all their deformity, they will somehow begin to think more kindly of their ugliness? Do you imagine that the man with no nose will suddenly come to the conclusion that he has been given *permission* to have no nose? Do you think he will stop wanting a nose? Can you believe that at this moment of unmerited acceptance he will begin to take pleasure, not in our acceptance of him but in his own noselessness? That he will, as a logical consequence, begin to advocate cutting off everybody's nose? Of course you don't." ( )